A26796:138
The harmony of the divine attributes in the contrivance and accomplishment of man's redemption…
The harmony of the divine attributes in the contrivance and accomplishment of man's redemption by the Lord Jesus Christ, or, Discourses wherein is showed how the wisdom, mercy, justice, holiness, power, and truth of God are glorified in that great and blessed work / by William Bates.The harmony of the divine attributes in the contrivance and accomplishment of man's redemption by the Lord Jesus Christ, or, Discourses wherein is shewed how the wisdom, mercy, justice, holiness, power, and truth of God are glorified in that great and blessed work / by William Bates.
London: printed by J. Darby for Nathaniel Ranew and Jonathan Robinson and Brabazon Aylmer, 1674
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
1. The Understanding hath lost the right apprehension of things. As Sin began in the darkness of the Mind, so one of its worst effects is, the increasing that Darkness, which can only be dispelled by a supernatural Light. Now what the Eye is to the Body, that is the Mind for the directing the Will and conducting the Life. And if the light that is in us be darkness, how great is that darkness? 1How irregular and dangerous must our motions be? Not only the lower part of the Soul▪ is under a dreadful disorder; but the Spirit of the mind, 2the divinest part is depraved with Ignorance and Error. The Light of Reason is not pure; But as the Sun when with its beams it sends down pestilential Influences, and corrupts the Air in the enlightening it, so the carnal Mind corrupts the whole Man, by representing good as evil, and evil as good. The Wisdom of the flesh is enmity against God. 3And the Apostle describes the state of the Gentile World,4 That their understandings were darkened, being alienated from the life of God, through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their hearts. The corruption of their Manners proceeded from their Minds. For all Virtues are directed by Reason in their Exercise, so that if the Understanding be darkened, all virtuous Operations cease.
1. The Understanding hath lost the right apprehension of things. As Sin began in the darkness of the Mind, so one of its worst effects is, the encreasing that Darkness, which can only be dispell'd by a supernatural Light. Now what the Eye is to the Body, that is the Mind for the directing the Will and conducting the Life. And if the light that is in us be darkness, how great is that darkness? 1How irregular and dangerous must our motions be? Not only the lower part of the Soul▪ is under a dreadful disorder; but the Spirit of the mind,